Top SOLIDWORKS New Features from 2016 until 2022 | Part I
A List of Favourable SOLIDWORKS What’s New Features From 2016 – 2022
Every year, SOLIDWORKS will introduce many new features for the users to improve their design process and time. In this blog, we will be providing a list and summarisation for every useful feature that had been introduced over the past 6 years. The list is divided into 5 main categories which are User Interface, Parts, Assemblies, Drawings and SOLIDWORKS Simulation.
Today, let’s talk about the User Interface!
User Interface
- Breadcrumbs Menu
Breadcrumbs Menu is a tool to help navigate an assembly and locate what you’re looking for quickly and efficiently.
- Breadcrumbs Menu

- Section View
Section View is now equipped with a triad manipulator so that user can justify the location for sectioning easily.
- Section View

- Parent and Child Dependencies
With this feature that can be turned on or off, users can now see the features that are related to specific features selected.
- Parent and Child Dependencies

- Mating Component
Mating Component automatically changes the selected component transparency for better view on selecting another entity.
- Mating Component


- What’s Wrong
Now, when you select error features, it has a pop-up to show on the error/warning information. This will help users to understand more on what needs to be repaired.
- What’s Wrong

- Home Tab
Home Tab is now equipped with a recent file and some filter option.
- Home Tab

- Shortcut Menu
In order to customise shortcut commands, you just need to drag and drop the icon to the shortcut menu. There is also a search tab to search for any command instead of hovering into top right corner.
- Shortcut Menu

- Coordinate System
Coordinate System can be set using numeric values from axis. Before this, you can only can use by selecting existing entities to define the coordinate system.
- Coordinate System

- Assembly/Components Reference Geometry Shortcut Button
When you are using the Q button, it will present the assemblies or components reference geometry such as plane and origin.
- Assembly/Components Reference Geometry Shortcut Button

What’s New | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Breadcrumbs Menu | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Triad Manipulator for Section View | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Parent and Child Dependencies | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Change Transparency During Mating | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
What’s Wrong Information | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Home Tab Improvement | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Drag & Drop for Creating Shortcut | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
Find Commands in Shortcut | ✓ | ||||||
Coordinate System Defined by Numeric | ✓ | ||||||
Assemblies/Components Reference Geometry Shortcut | ✓ |
Learn more here or reach out to us at talk2us@cadcam.com.my for further information. See you in Part II !